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FROM Jane Lerner,
Lohud.com
October 10, 2015
The village's birth-control experiment could lead to a new way to control the burgeoning population.
HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON Deer are still very much at home in the village, chomping through vegetable gardens and munching on azaleas — but there are some early signs that there might be fewer of them.
The community is getting ready to start the third year of a five-year experiment to reduce its deer population through the use of birth control on local does. As other communities struggle to decide if they will allow hunting to thin their deer herds, the Hastings approach is an experiment that could lead to a new way to control the burgeoning population.
Over the past two years, researchers from the Humane Society of the United States have tagged 30 or so does and injected them with a contraceptive vaccine that renders them infertile for at least two years. Researchers from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Massachusetts are also involved in the project.
Eight deer were treated in 2014 and 21 this past spring, village Trustee Dan Lemons said.
It's too early in their reproductive cycles to see the impact of treating the 21 this year. But Stephanie Boyles Griffin, a wildlife biologist and senior director of innovative wildlife management with the Humane Society, estimates that sterilizing eight does the year before resulted in at least seven fewer yearlings in the village now.
One of the sterilized deer was killed but the others are still in the area and, as far as researchers can tell, did not reproduce. Does often give birth to twins or triplets, increasing the impact of treating each animal.
Researchers hope to prevent the births of at least 27 deer this year and another 27 the following year.
There are some 100 to 120 deer in the 2.9-square-mile village.
“Right now, more deer are being born every year than are dying,” Griffin said. “The goal is to have a lower birth rate than attrition rate.”
It's been a community effort. Hastings High School students knocked on doors and helped secure permission from over 300 homeowners for researchers to follow deer onto their property so they could be shot with a dart full of an anesthetic. Residents are asked to enter deer sightings onto a map maintained by the village.
While the animals are under anesthesia, they are marked with a numbered tag attached to an ear. Females are treated with an immunocontraceptive vaccine called porcine zona pellucida or PZP for short.
The program cost $13,724 in 2015, with much of that covering a one-time cost for field cameras, according to the village.
“It’s too early to know for sure what kind of effect it’s had,” said Lemons, who has helped led the community effort to track deer. “We still have to filter through all of the data.”
But he said no one is expecting a quick fix. It took years of planting suburban lawns and gardens, destroying natural habitats and eliminating predators, to allow the deer population to grow, he said.
"A solution is years in the making," Lemons said. " I don’t think we are going to see reliable impacts for at least five years, if not 10 years."
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